[Ground-station] Call for discussion: ORI satellite program

[Michelle Thompson]

There are a lot of people that greatly enjoy working FM satellites. Many of
them are my friends. They like it, they're happy, and AMSAT is serving
them. They're not embarrassed. They are quite proud, and deservedly so.
There is real skill involved.

They deserve recognition and a thumbs-up for what they're doing. This is
supposed to be fun, and they're having it.

It should not be the exclusive focus of AMSAT.

There should be room for all of the different engineering and
implementations, both FM repeaters in the sky and broadband microwave
digital like what we're doing.

This is both/and not either/or. Let them enjoy their hobby without insult.
What we should be doing is showing successful demonstrations and inviting
people to enjoy them. More show, less tell.


-Michelle W5NYV

"Potestatem obscuri lateris nescis."


On Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 4:20 PM, Phil Karn <karn at ka9q.net> wrote:

> On 4/23/18 12:55, Robert McGwier wrote:
> > Well Phil, I can tell you there that you are not completely accurate.
> >
> > At the 30th anniversary of Smallsat in Utah they honored the attendees
> > who are credited with much of the earliest smallsat work.  2500 people
> > honored the roll we played in the industry.
>
> First I remember hearing about that. I haven't been to Utah yet, only
> Cal Poly. When was that?
>
> > Jan, Gordon, Martin, Bob Twiggs and they made a mistake and included me
> > (Microsat) and you and Tom would have been included had you attended and
> > we sat at the honorees table.
>
> I don't think anybody told me...
>
> I did see Bob Twiggs at Cal Poly two years ago. I kidded him by saying
> that when I first heard of his "cubesat" idea I thought it was a kludge,
> a gimmick. He said "I did too!"
>
> > If you want to argue that AMSAT is not on the leading edge of technology
> > now in space, there you won't get an argument.
>
> Yeah. What have we done *lately*? The Fox-1 series is, quite frankly, an
> embarrassment. One 1U cubesat after another, and all they do is repeat
> one analog FM channel "because that's what the members want". Poorly,
> since FM is the worst possible choice for random multiple access.
>
> I've seen the Youtube videos of people talking through it with HTs
> connected to hand-held yagis. I doubt they're going to impress very many
> young people used to smartphones.
>
> Phil
>
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